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I’m trying to figure out if my car’s fuel economy is normal for my commute, which is almost all stop-and-go city driving with very few stretches over 40 mph. My trip computer shows an average of 18.3 mpg, but when I manually calculate it at the pump, it’s consistently closer to 16.5. I know city mileage is worse, but this feels like a bigger gap than I expected.

Yeah, city driving does that. The dash average can drift high when you spend a lot of time stopped or creeping. My trips often show mid 18s, but the pump math for a full tank lands around 15–17 depending on how the fill goes.

I once checked tire pressure and found one tire a bit low; after topping up to spec, the numbers moved only a hair.

I started logging miles and gallons across two tanks to see real usage; the dash number never matched exactly, but the gap stayed about the same.

Another thought is how you fill the tank; if you don't top off to the brim, the gallons estimate can look off and the math won't line up.

Long idling at lights can wreck city mpg; those stretches add up and widen the gap between dash and hand calc.

Do you track more than one tank or just rely on the latest fill?

Sometimes it feels like the car is fighting the numbers, and I just shrug and drive on.

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